After Decades, a 77-Year-Old Therapist and His Global Program Show No Signs of Slowing Down

By Marian Sandmaier - For almost 25 years, Jim Gordon and his team at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine has worked in war zones, refugee camps, and communities struck by natural disasters and mass shootings, both in the United States and internationally. And still doing this work at 77, he has no plans to slow down.

When Disaster Strikes, Jim Gordon Gets to Work

Wherever people have been uprooted and stripped raw by the devastating force of war, sudden violence, or natural disaster, you’re likely to find Jim Gordon at work. For 25 years, he’s been bringing the tools of mind–body healing to trouble spots around the globe. His goal? To make himself unnecessary.

Talking About Staying Well After Therapy May Be Lifesaving

By Marian Sandmaier - Virtually all clinicians make clear to departing clients that they’re welcome to return to therapy at any point. But for clients with recurrent depression, that may not be enough. I propose that before termination, therapists talk with clients candidly about the possibility of another episode of suffering down the line.

How Can We Manage to Stay Well?

Most clinicians know that if a person has suffered one bout of serious depression, he or she is much more vulnerable to another one. But most therapists still don’t address a vital question with their clients—how can they stay well once their most recent bout of misery has ended and they’ve left therapy?

Stories Told at the End of the Day

In our own small way, the Networker has tried to revive the ancient, tribal practice of storytelling. At our third annual Symposium storytelling event, five veteran therapists fearlessly got on stage and told disarmingly revealing stories about therapy experiences that challenged them and taught them something vital about themselves.

What Therapists Can Teach Us about Growing Old Gracefully

Does being a therapist give us an edge in coping with the inescapable phenomenon of aging? Three prominent psychotherapists—Irvin Yalom, Joan Klagsbrun, and Erv Polster—share both how their experience with older clients has shaped their slant on their own mortality and how their own aging may be changing the way they approach psychotherapy.

Helping Grown Children and Aging Parents Learn to Nurture Each Other

By Marian Sandmaier - Nearly all therapists will soon be working with substantial numbers of aging families, whether or not they ever consciously choose to. The question at hand, then, is how can this juncture in the family life cycle be transformed from an emphasis on adjusting to loss and disappointments to a focus on growth and possibility?

What’s the Takeaway for Therapists?

By Marian Sandmaier - Tony Robbins, who will give a special session at the 41st annual Networker Symposium in March, is a pop psychology phenom. Over the last four decades, his work in the area of emotional growth and healing has influenced millions of people. But can therapists learn anything useful from him?

What’s the Takeaway for Therapists?

Despite his four decades in the public eye, most therapists are only vaguely aware of Tony Robbins and his take on personal change. But if you attract millions of people from a staggering range of backgrounds and interests to your seminars, it’s a good bet you have something to offer. So what’s that elusive “something” that he transmits to people? And can therapists learn anything useful from him?

Eugene Gendlin's Six Steps to Focusing

By Marian Sandmaier - On a hot August morning in 2012, I sat with 25 strangers in a former Capuchin monastery overlooking New York’s Hudson River. We were there to spend a week learning about a therapeutic process known as Focusing. I couldn’t have known then that this deceptively simple practice would alter my life.

After Decades, a 77-Year-Old Therapist and His Global Program Show No Signs of Slowing Down

By Marian Sandmaier - For almost 25 years, Jim Gordon and his team at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine has worked in war zones, refugee camps, and communities struck by natural disasters and mass shootings, both in the United States and internationally. And still doing this work at 77, he has no plans to slow down.

Talking About Staying Well After Therapy May Be Lifesaving

By Marian Sandmaier - Virtually all clinicians make clear to departing clients that they’re welcome to return to therapy at any point. But for clients with recurrent depression, that may not be enough. I propose that before termination, therapists talk with clients candidly about the possibility of another episode of suffering down the line.

Helping Grown Children and Aging Parents Learn to Nurture Each Other

By Marian Sandmaier - Nearly all therapists will soon be working with substantial numbers of aging families, whether or not they ever consciously choose to. The question at hand, then, is how can this juncture in the family life cycle be transformed from an emphasis on adjusting to loss and disappointments to a focus on growth and possibility?

What’s the Takeaway for Therapists?

By Marian Sandmaier - Tony Robbins, who will give a special session at the 41st annual Networker Symposium in March, is a pop psychology phenom. Over the last four decades, his work in the area of emotional growth and healing has influenced millions of people. But can therapists learn anything useful from him?

Eugene Gendlin's Six Steps to Focusing

By Marian Sandmaier - On a hot August morning in 2012, I sat with 25 strangers in a former Capuchin monastery overlooking New York’s Hudson River. We were there to spend a week learning about a therapeutic process known as Focusing. I couldn’t have known then that this deceptively simple practice would alter my life.

Left to Our Own Devices

By Marian Sandmaier - Today, we’re entering a new and fast-expanding universe of emotional self-help—one populated by smartphone apps. They offer tools for everything from depression, social anxiety, and binge eating to phobias, postpartum problems, and substance abuse recovery. Since solace-by-app is here to stay, how might clinicians become a meaningful part of this mental health game changer, in ways that might benefit both themselves and their clients?

How Therapists Can Help Us Accept and Break Free from Our Dispositions

New investigations are beginning to shed new light on a question that's hounded psychotherapy for more than a century: what's the relationship between nature and nurture, and what does it mean for the human project of change? As we come to understand more about the complex process of temperament development, therapists may be able to better help clients master one of life's trickiest balancing acts---making peace with one's inborn nature while knocking against its boundaries, in search of a larger self.

When Disaster Strikes, Jim Gordon Gets to Work

Wherever people have been uprooted and stripped raw by the devastating force of war, sudden violence, or natural disaster, you’re likely to find Jim Gordon at work. For 25 years, he’s been bringing the tools of mind–body healing to trouble spots around the globe. His goal? To make himself unnecessary.

How Can We Manage to Stay Well?

Most clinicians know that if a person has suffered one bout of serious depression, he or she is much more vulnerable to another one. But most therapists still don’t address a vital question with their clients—how can they stay well once their most recent bout of misery has ended and they’ve left therapy?

Stories Told at the End of the Day

In our own small way, the Networker has tried to revive the ancient, tribal practice of storytelling. At our third annual Symposium storytelling event, five veteran therapists fearlessly got on stage and told disarmingly revealing stories about therapy experiences that challenged them and taught them something vital about themselves.

What Therapists Can Teach Us about Growing Old Gracefully

Does being a therapist give us an edge in coping with the inescapable phenomenon of aging? Three prominent psychotherapists—Irvin Yalom, Joan Klagsbrun, and Erv Polster—share both how their experience with older clients has shaped their slant on their own mortality and how their own aging may be changing the way they approach psychotherapy.

What’s the Takeaway for Therapists?

Despite his four decades in the public eye, most therapists are only vaguely aware of Tony Robbins and his take on personal change. But if you attract millions of people from a staggering range of backgrounds and interests to your seminars, it’s a good bet you have something to offer. So what’s that elusive “something” that he transmits to people? And can therapists learn anything useful from him?

Stories of Vulnerability and Possibility

The self-assurance of expert practitioners who publicly present their work can lead everyday therapists to believe that psychotherapy is a far more predictable craft than it actually is. The reality, of course, is much muddier. Therapists on the ground eventually learn that only one mantra applies to every case—it's more complicated than that.

Oral Histories of Psychotherapy 1978-2017

A group of innovators and leaders look back over different realms of therapeutic practice and offer their view of the eureka moments, the mistakes and misdirections, and the inevitable trial-and-error processes that have shaped the evolution of different specialty areas within the field.

Trauma: Retreats and Advances BESSEL VAN DER KOLK

Couples: In Search of a Safe Haven JOHN GOTTMAN

Systems Therapy: The Art of Creating Uncertainty SALVADOR MINUCHIN

Family Violence: Out of the ShadowsMARY JO BARRETT

Psychopharmacology: The Jury Is Still OutJOHN PRESTON

Race Matters: How Far Have We Come? KENNETH HARDY

Neuroscience and Therapy: The Craft of Rewiring the BrainDANIEL SIEGEL

Sorting Through The Bewildering World Of Therapeutic Apps

Mobile apps offer tools for everything from depression, social anxiety, and binge eating to phobias, OCD, postpartum problems, and substance abuse recovery. In some cases, they’re even being marketed as actual providers of therapy, or at least therapy-like help. Since solace-by-app is here to stay, what do therapists need to know?